An Open Ecosystem to Fuel IoT Growth, Part II

Subramani Kengeri, Vice President, Global Design Solutions, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, explains why an open and trusted ecosystem is critical to the future success of an increasingly fragmented and application-driven IoT market.

The projected growth trajectory for the Internet of Things (IoT) market is phenomenal. The number of “things” that will connect to the Internet will exceed the installed base of mobile phones in 2018 (MIT Technology Review, July/August 2014) and will continue to rise exponentially. One forecast predicts that the number of smartphone subscriptions will reach 5.6 billion (Ericsson Mobility Report, “On the Pulse of the Networked Society,” June 2013) by 2019, and another suggests the number of connected devices will grow to a staggering 29.8 billion (ABI Research, June 2013) in the same time frame.

Consider the connected home as just one sub-sector. Estimates suggest the ‘smart’ home will constitute 20% of the total available market for IoT. Yet this segment alone is forecast to connect 23 billion residential appliances in 10 years, which will require 160 billion semiconductors (Semico Research Corp). In addition to semiconductor sales, IoT is enabling many other value-added services across the ecosystem.

Residential connectivity is just one of many markets and many products. Consider the other available sub-sectors, such as consumer, wearables, industrial automation, enterprise, smart energy cities and medical, and the potential for the overall market is staggering.

The critical question that we have to answer is, how, as an industry, do we realize and support this huge market potential?